keyboard service techs becoming scarce

[Delaware Dave]

My keyboards over the years have been pretty reliable despite heavy gigging. I've had a couple of instances where I've needed a tech for amps and keys. Some work I can do myself some work can't be done. I have two hammonds and had my L100P serviced for a buzz. That I took to Tom Tuson's business in Morton, Pa., about 30 minutes from my house. My keyboards I took to R.J.K. Service in Landerberg Pa (about 30 minutes from my house). He was a highly rated service tech in this area and known for high quality service.

 

In the past couple of years both businesses have shutdown (both retired) and I find myself now without any techs that I know that have a good reputation. In addition to that my piano tuner had a fatal heart attack. In fact, I currently don't even know where I would take my electronics for repair. Other than taking them to music stores like guitar center (which is 20 minutes away) I have no idea how competent these guys are. I get concerned being a gigging musician that the days of reliable and 'fast turnaround' are long gone. I remember using one of these fly by night repair guys many years ago when I had an issue with my Ensoniq SD1. I took it in for a repair for something fairly simple; when I brought it home the sequencer wouldn't work. I took it back to the repair place and they could not diagnose the issue. Frustrated, I took it to Malvern Pa which was the headquarters/manufacturing facility. A tech met me in the lobby, he opened it up in the lobby stared at the keyboard innards for about 5 seconds and noticed that one of the legs of the Eprom chip for the sequencer was not in its slot, as if the chip was forced into position and a leg was hanging out of its socket. he reseated the chip and all was well. He said he couldn't understand why someone would have even touched the chip based on what he was repairing. He shook his head, handed me back my keyboard and I was on my way. I hope that I can find someone reliable around here now that my reliable service techs have all moved on.

 

Where do you take your equipment when a repair is necessary? any of you close to the Philadelphia, Pa. area and have a reliable tech that you trust?

[re Pete]

I used to go to Cintioli's in Philly who had great repair dept. Sadly, Bennie died and it's closed. Last time I needed a repair, I bought an amp from a store and took it to a mainline store. They couldn't fix it. I sent it back to the factory and it came back unfixed. The amp in question was discounted when I bought it. After all this, I found out it was delivered to the store after falling out of the UPS truck. I bought a new one from same store and it works fine. Just goes to show what some places do to make a sale. Good luck on the search. I guess I'm in the same boat. If I need a repair I guess I'd have to use a place the maker recommends.

[Delaware Dave]

I used to go to Cintioli's in Philly who had great repair dept.

 

I bought my L100P from Bennie 20 years ago.

[Piktor]

Dave, my friend (the fellow who bought your Voce MIDI Drawbar unit) operated his instrument repair business for about 35 years. Of course, over the course of those years he saw a lot of changes. When my dishwasher broke a few years ago, the repairman that I hired saw that a simple part had worn out, but he told me that he could not replace that little part. He had to replace the whole unit that housed the simple part. It was expensive. In the past few years before he retired I guess my friend encountered similar repair issues with electronic instruments. Once a client learned that a whole expensive integrated part had to be replaced, they often decided not to repair, and instead just buy a whole new item for a few hundred bucks more. While this newer way of producing instruments brings us amazing technology for reasonable prices, it is not conducive to operating the kind of repair services that my friend offered. My friend finally decided to retire a couple of years ago.

 

To answer your question, for me I still have access to my retired friend"s services, as he is still doing a modest amount of work out of his home. Maybe you can befriend a retired repairman?

[synthizen2]

All of the modern compact SMT has made synth/keyboard repair way more difficult for the typical 'journeyman' tech repair person these days.

 

Yes, if a tiny part goes bad (like a capacitor or small chip), they will want to replace the whole SMT card that holds that small part. It's all modular and miniaturized now.

 

Unless, say, the issue is a simple disconnected cable (or similar). A local Kurzweil repair guy did me good on my PC3 lately... but it took months. And this guy looks like he's ready to retire any day now.

[kenheeter]

Well, I am a repair technician and I'm still plugging away even though my wife would love to have me retire. I am busier than ever these days because I'm the only person left doing this in my town. You need special tools and expertise to repair SMD devices but it can be done. My biggest problem these days is getting parts. Most of the major manufacturers have given up supporting products that are out of warranty and in some cases warranty items are replaced, not repaired. So yes, the industry is changing and try as I might I can't find a younger person who is committed to learning that might be able to take over when I do hang it up. To be honest, I wouldn't suggest this as a career these days. It's much like being a musician, hard to make a living on doing just this.

[Shamanczarek]

I go to two places in North Wales, PA.

 

Retrolinear works on Hammond, Rhodes, Wurlitzer EPs, Leslie, and analog and digital synths.

 

Ray Klos specializes in Combo Organs but works on other vintage gear. Turnaround is usually very quick.

 

Bell Tone Synth Works in Upper Darby, PA looks good but I've never tried them.

[Docbop]

Our disposable world is moving into expensive products too. Manufactures fighting right to repair so local repair people can't get many parts. Then some of the products like smartphones and computers soldered in parts that used to be easily replace able, which means now repair people have to have skills and equipment in micro soldering. A the major industry want to move everything to a subscription from cars to groceries they are coming up with subscription plans. They want the month chunk of your wallet no more waiting till you decide it time for something new.

[marino]

I, too, have recently lost my longtime synth technician, and if you don't mind, I would use this opportunity to pay homage to him.

 

Cesare Bernardini wasn't just a "tech"... in the course of a 40-year career, he had become a sort of mythological figure. Always in the same minuscule laboratory since the seventies, he has been "the" keyboard repairman in Rome - and very often people came from remote parts of Italy to have their gear serviced by him, especial analog and vintage stuff.

 

Along the years he had acquired a huge amount of knowledge, and I can't count how many times he saved my ass by repairing instruments that the "official" service center had declared dead - or worse yet, when the "authorized" place had declared that there wasn't anything wrong with the instrument - except that when I tried to use it, it didn't work...

 

His very small laboratory was also a place where, if you were lucky, you could see all the rare vintage gear (I have a whole collection of pictures), and where you could meet great musicians, and starting a good chat with them. Most of the Italian keyboard playing community has been there sooner or later.

 

What was even more special, is the fact that when you had become friend with Cesare (and I know I did, in 35+ years), he often charged you very small amounts for his precious work, even when he had worked on something for whole days. Sometimes - several times - at my request of the bill, he said something like "it's ok, bye-bye" - leaving me with my instrument repaired, my wallet intact, and speechless.

 

At about 70, he was officially retired - but in practice, he continued to work for the old time customers/friends, despite a bad back that gave him big pain and the need to rest frequently. He just knew that he was a point of reference for so many people, and didn't want to disappoint them.

 

This went on until last January, when a rare liver disease took him away rapidly. The whole Roman music community was shocked, as was I. Especially the elders, who had dealt with him their whole life....

 

Ok, so back to the thread: I have some contacts for other techs working on synths, but none has showed anything vaguely approaching the incredible knowledge that Cesare had, not to mention his gentleman approach to people and genuine curiosity for any new technology. I will miss him for a long time.

[Delaware Dave]

I go to two places in North Wales, PA.

 

Retrolinear works on Hammond, Rhodes, Wurlitzer EPs, Leslie, and analog and digital synths.

 

Ray Klos specializes in Combo Organs but works on other vintage gear. Turnaround is usually very quick.

 

Bell Tone Synth Works in Upper Darby, PA looks good but I've never tried them.

 

Thanks, I've bookmarked this. North Wales is about a little over an hour, a reasonable drive for a quality repair.

[Doerfler]

4 months ago RetroLinear announced that they were booked for 2021 and taking repair orders for 2022.Times are tight

[The Real MC]

You're in PA. I interviewed for a repair tech job in Williamsport earlier this year. I was qualified for the job, but the store owner didn't want to bring in staff until sales came back to pre-covid levels. I even explained to him the demand for repairs and the dearth of repair techs. I wasn't going to wait for him. I wound up finding another job in FL.

[re Pete]

Yeah, lot of history was in that store. Bought my first Real book there under the counter plus other equipment. Fixed my leslie 145. Just a great repair team. Wonder where now?

Seemed like every band in area playing had a connection there. Everything I bought worked. Can't say the same for 8th St music from my experience with that amp. But they were listed dealer to go thru.

I read some not so cool stuff online about Bennie maybe getting taken advantaged of towards the end. Sad.

[hardware]

I got lucky because my Physis K4 had a great warranty so they would provide local techs, and while most were old school organ/electro-mechanical types with garages full of antique boards, I wanted someone who dealt with Wheel Assembly"s and more modern boards.

 

Got the best tech I ever ran across who was the guy that replaced the original lead singer for Sly & The Family Stone.

We used a triple wheel assembly replacement, as well as the knob/fader/button board.

 

Opened it up while I was there, showed me how well designed it was since it was plug and play mostly, but did require diagnostics, even showed me the Mains Power Supply would be next unless he re soldered it, etc.

 

I knew he was on top of things as he had a Yamaha CS-80 torn apart and was excited about the challenge of fixing it.

 

Anyone traveling through Vegas needing help with old & new gear, even Leslie cabs here"s the guy.

 

 

 

911 Keys & Sound, Inc.

Las Vegas, Nevada

89120-1213

http://www.911KeysAndSound.com

(702) 369-9694

Mon-Fri. 1pm-8pm

[RABid]

I would love to get a Rhodes Chroma but there is no one in my state that can do repairs. Closest possibility is a 5 hour drive to Nashville.

[Greg Mein]

Interesting topic and one that hits sort of close to home for me. I just recently retired in July from Collins Aerospace where I worked as an electronic technician for 30 years. I spent all that time testing, troubleshooting and servicing avionics and aerospace equipment. So my interest and experience generally made servicing my own (and sometimes others) music equipment a no-brainer......when possible.

 

Old tube amps are second semester electronics school stuff but synthesizers, interfaces and effect units can be a whole different can of worms. When working in the industry you have ready access to schematics, parts layouts and other resources but for Joe working in his garage manufacturers are not always so quick to give up those resources. Over the years it's become even more difficult as devices are more software reliant. Circuits often revolve around a programmed FPGA ball grid array part.

 

Anyway, a few years ago as I got closer to retiring and moving away I had the thought that perhaps I could be a sort of Roland or Korg tech, working part time from home doing repairs on their equipment. seemed like a good idea and I attempted to contact Roland to see if that was a possibility but I never got a response. As I recall it appeared to me as though you either needed to be a full on Roland employee or nothing at all. I honestly didn't didn't spend any further time pursuing it.

 

I still like the idea and may get back to looking into that but I'm way too busy right now, we just moved halfway across the country and closed on a new house today. Perhaps someone else here has looked into doing that sort of thing and has more insight?

[EricBarker]

Keyboard techs aren't becoming scarce... they're becoming *US*

[Theo Verelst]

I haven;t needed many repairs,and as it is now, maintenance is done by myself...

 

T

[re Pete]

I tuned a new customers piano yesterday. When I opened it up, a tuner business card with the pianos tune info on it was there. Turns out we went to same piano tech class at university decades ago. Haven't seen him in decades. He was old then. The piano was last tuned in 2009 by him. Googled him, turns out he died a year later. Would be 95 today if still living. Time marches on.

[Reezekeys]

My Heathkit-level skills and the generous help from the experts here have kept my aging equipment alive up to now. The saga of the USB jack on my Roland A800 that kept falling apart has been documented here, and if my desoldering skills were a little better I might still be using it on the road. I consider the replacement of a tiny SMD opamp on my QSC K8's amp board my finest achievement luckiest break. Neither of these repairs would have been done by any "authorized" service center - they would have simply replaced the entire board, at a considerable expense. Then there was the choke on my K8 that broke off the circuit board - another easy fix that the service center wanted ~$300 to replace the entire board. Mark (Markyboard) found the exact part from an independent supplier for $20. That was another mega-thread here.